在练习360°，独奏 & Small Firm Lawyers Explore New Tools of the Trade, Strategies
2023年10月10日
When it comes to negotiation, most people think of compromise. But negotiation is a much more complex and sophisticated process, especially in the context of practicing law.
“Everything revolves around interests,马克斯Bevilacqua说, founder and chief negotiating officer of the advisory firm Mindful Negotiating in Boston. “The metaphor we use is an iceberg. Positions are visible — things they will ask for. Interests are much more important, a substantive mass of things: our fears, 值, 动机, 司机, 需要, 和关切.”
“Instead of focusing on what people ask for, you want to understand their 动机. [You] want to get that understanding,” added Bevilacqua, one of the featured speakers at the D.C. 酒吧 Practice Management Advisory Service’s ninth annual Practice 360°: A Day for Lawyers and Law Firms on October 4. 事件, attended by more than 130 people, explored topics ranging from negotiation strategies to marketing to using artificial intelligence responsibly.
Bevilacqua’s negotiation model is based on the 1981 classic book by Harvard Law professor Roger Fisher and mediation expert William Ury, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. Born out of the Harvard Negotiation Project, the book pioneered methods of principled negotiation by separating people from the problem; focusing on interests, not positions; inventing options for mutual gain; and using objective criteria.
Lawyers can assess their own negotiating style, 是否竞争太激烈, 控制, 或适应, and relearn new approaches to create ideal negotiation dynamics, Bevilacqua说. 它需要自我反省, 或者个人辅导, and sometimes may mean sending someone else to the negotiation table.
“The idea is that the things that make lawyers strong in front of judges, 或者批判性思维, sometimes come at the expense of doing other things — switching modes, getting out of competitive mode, maybe moving to the collaborative,贝维拉克说, a former instructor with Harvard’s Program on Negotiation who now lectures at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
战略眼光 & 市场营销
In addition to tips on honing their negotiation skills, Practice 360° attendees also received advice from experts on media strategies for getting their name, 还有他们公司的, 在那里.
“Lawyers are great at generating ideas, but there was some subject matter knowledge missing,卡洛斯·拉斯特拉说, 奇普里亚尼的合伙人 & 维尔纳,P.C. “我们不是营销人员. We’re not taught to be marketers in law school.”
Lastra and fellow partner Tracey Coates, cochairs of their firm’s family law practice, said they leveraged their knowledge of domestic relations matters to gain media and television interviews. Their firm also brought in Eleanor Kerlow of Eleanor Kerlow PR as an outside public relations consultant to help them develop media pitches that led to television appearances, elevating their practice and building their personal brand.
Working with news outlets matters in today’s digital media ecosystem, Kerlow说, because placements generate content and shares. The key is to be knowledgeable, 准备, and accessible when the media 需要 help with a story, 她告诉与会者.
市场营销 is important to Cipriani & 沃纳, a general services firm that had been based primarily in Pennsylvania but opened an office in Washington, D.C., in 2014 and has expanded into Maryland and Virginia. The firm now has 20 offices in 10 states and the District.
“You have to do a good job, but once you do a good job, they trust you. 他们喜欢你. They know that you know what you're talking about. Eventually you get invitations back because they know that you'll deliver every time,” Lastra said of his media engagements.
Coates created her own podcast, 特蕾西·科茨秀, which gave her a platform to reach people directly and build her own audience by tackling relationship, 婚姻, 还有离婚问题. She discovered that the podcast was a relatively low-cost way to establish her brand and build credibility both with media and potential clients.
当然, skills and tactics need strategy, and David Skinner of Gimbal offered attendees a workshop in developing a purpose-driven strategic vision for their law firms.
“Establishing a vision for what you want to achieve, 即使在短期内也是如此, will help set the foundation that creates alignment and unifies your team around a common sense of purpose,斯金纳说. “That common sense of purpose is going to improve focus and productivity, and that is what's going to help you deliver better services to your clients while also improving your bottom line.”
Setting a vision for your firm’s strategy requires being clear about who you serve, 如何为他们服务, and why it matters to them and to you, 斯金纳说. The key is to create a statement of what you want your firm to achieve and look like in three to five years’ time, 他补充说.
跟上人工智能的步伐
The legal world has been abuzz with both excitement and concern about how artificial intelligence will impact the practice of law, and Practice 360° covered some of the issues around AI technology such as ChatGPT.
The major question for the legal profession is, if lawyers are going to use AI tools, “how do we not fall prey to ethical pitfalls?” asked 埃德·沃尔特斯, CEO and founder of Fastcase, an online legal research service. Fastcase, D.C. 酒吧 member benefit, recently merged with vLex, a global legal intelligence platform that uses AI.
D.C. 职业行为准则 require lawyers to be technologically competent, 所以说到人工智能, “you have to be proficient with these tools,沃尔特斯说, 但同时, practitioners must uphold their duty of confidentiality.
“Competence requires that we analyze these tools to see if we can use them to serve our clients safely, 秘密地,沃尔特斯说. Ethics rules require lawyers to avoid using “reckless technologies,” but they also “require us to stay abreast of the new technologies and understand what's 在那里,他补充道.
Walters advised caution in the use of AI. “We are sort of being led to believe that AI is this magical robot lawyer — and maybe one day it will be — but as of right now it’s just not, even though it’s pretending to be. There are a million problems with AI,沃尔特斯说.
